Places We "Did"

I wanted to take a picture of every "Welcome to" state sign that we passed on the road. As it turns out, it's a lot harder to take pictures of road signs while traveling 70mph on the interstate than I thought, and we passed many of these signs at night.  So here's a montage of signs from the 17 states we drove through on the interview trail. Some of these we actually took, others were pilfered off the internet. This will be the conclusion of our blog. We may go to a couple more interviews but for all intensive purposes this is the end of interview season for us.  Thank you for all your support and prayers as we traveled around the country and have a merry Christmas.

Cincinnati

Cincinnati was equally as impressive as many of the places we've been. The have arguably the No.1 Children's Hospital in the nation. The Medicine program is solid too. Cincinnati is also one of the few places we've been that has a med-peds couple in their residency now and they seemed extremely happy. The program director had gone out of her way to ensure their schedules were identical in terms of call, vacations, and elective time. While other programs have assured us they would be understanding in attempting to align our schedules, none have to been able to prove it by example the way Cincinnati did. Nick LaChey and his choir recently won $250,000 for Cincinnati Children's Hospital on the NBC TV Show "Clash of the Choirs" in case you were interested.

Louisville

After driving from Massachusetts to Maryland to Tennessee to avoid the behemoth storm system dumping snow all over the Ohio River Valley, we came to Louisville from the south. The town itself seemed nice but the program was one of the weakest we interviewed at. They had also just hired a new program director, so there was a considerable amount of instability within the program. However, Louisville definitely wins the "nicest hotel" award.

Baystate

Baystate Medical Center- in Springfield, MA- is home to the 3rd oldest med-peds program in the nation. They are unique in that they are the only community-based med-peds program we are applying to. The rest are all university based. Because of this they have a real commitment to primary care that some of the university-based programs lack. They are also the sole referral center for all of Western Massachusetts, which seems impressive until you look at how small Massachusetts is on the map.  Baystate wins the "best program director" award.  He was super-nice, committed to recruiting humanistic residents, knew a ton about med-peds stuff, and was a fascinating speaker.  Unfortunately Baystate also wins the "worst weather" award because we got stuck in a blizzard while we were there.  We actually got there early so it would snow while we were safe in the hotel instead of out on the road.  We then had to drive 200 miles south to avoid the next wave of snow that came in over the weekend. This was my first experience "digging out" a car and I don't look forward to repeating it.

Boston

We came to Boston expecting to see two legendary programs, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Brigham and Women's/Boston Children's Hospital, but thinking they would probably be too impressive for us.  Instead, we found two programs that fit us remarkably well and a community of residents and faculty that were the nicest we had encountered anywhere. Boston is a charming city and, although intimidating in its size, is actually quite livable. Although we feel our chances of matching at these programs are slim because they are so small and so elite, we felt so good while we were there that we are compelled to rank them high. We would be honored to match at either of these incredible programs.

Rochester

I apologize for the infrequent updates lately. Here's some pictures from our interviews in Rochester, where we stayed with our dear friends Alexi and Sarah Matousek. They were gracious hosts and we got to experience a great town with an even better med-peds program! The snow was cold but picturesque and overall we felt charmed by this humble northern city. We'd love to join our friends there if that's where the match takes us. After also interviewing at the family medicine program I have decided that Med-Peds is a much better fit for me for a variety of reasons so I'm now interviewing only at med-peds programs with Nina. We're excited about our interview travels and stay tuned for pics from Boston real soon!

UNC

We've been busy on the road lately, but here's some belated pictures of UNC from our interviews there earlier this week. The campus rivals Duke with its beauty and history. The hospital was nice, huge, and impossible to navigate. The residents and program director were friendly, down to earth, sincere people who seemed very committed to education.  We liked the place. We're in Rochester now with pictures from there to follow soon so keep checking the site!

Mountains

After our Duke interviews we headed for the mountains. Stone mountain is on the eastern edge of the Blue Ridge mountains just a few hours from Durham. It's referred to as a "bald" mountain, I prefer to call it a "really bad haircut" mountain. You'll see what I mean. There were lots of bare rock faces and steep ascents but we made it up and down in one piece. The mountains and the fall colors were beautiful. We took in a small section of the Blue Ridge Parkway as well before heading back to Durham.

Duke

Earlier this week we interviewed at Duke's Med-Peds program and really liked it!  They work hard there but everyone we met was super nice and not at all tired. They also have a lot of really cool global health stuff.  Here's some pics of the Duke hospital, the idyllic Duke campus, and the town of Durham, NC.

On The Road

Here are a few photos from the drive to Durham-Chapel Hill, NC.  Our good friend Mike Cammarata joined us for this first leg of the trip.  Included here are goofy photos in the car, states we passed through, and the ever-entertaining South of the Border billboards. You can click on any of them for a larger view. Enjoy!

Beginnings

Nina and I will be on the road for the next month visiting various locations throughout the Eastern US in pursuit of a residency program.  In light of this tremendous opportunity, we thought it might be fun to start a blog/online journal to document our experiences and share fun/photos with friends and family.  As we travel up the east coast in Nina's trusty 4-Runner, we will "do" many places and we hope that by visiting this silly little website from time to time you may feel included in our monumental journey.  So enjoy the photos and postings as we enjoy seeing new places together and look forward to returning home safe and sound.